Meaning & Origins

Contracted form of the Greek name Theokleia, derived from theos ‘God’ + kleia ‘glory’. The name was borne by a 1st-century saint (the first female martyr), who was particularly popular in the Middle Ages because of the lurid details of her suffering recorded in the apocryphal ‘Acts of Paul and Thecla’.

Italian: from the personal name Romeo, which derives ultimately from the classical Greek adjective rhōmaios (modern Greek romeos), originally denoting someone from the eastern Roman Empire, i.e. Byzantium, later someone from Rome itself, in particular someone who had been on a pilgrimage there, and finally someone who had made any pilgrimage, i.e. a pilgrim; from this last sense arose the personal name.